New plans outlining winter response procedures for Mountain View County's roads were presented to council during the recent policies and priorities committee meeting.For the first time, the plans for normal and emergency snow responses have been put into written form, something that will make the response system both more effective and more efficient, said operations director Michael MacLean.“The plans provide written procedures that will be utilized within the county for snow events,” said MacLean. “They identify the service levels that we will try and achieve, all within a priority, a location, what the triggers are, and what the targets are. It includes all the roadways as well as the airports.“Now we actually have performance service levels to strive for to obtain the targets. We identify the priorities and they are documented, so everyone can review them. And they identify the communications that occur in an emergency snow event and a normal snow event.”The winter operations plan sets out the following road plowing criteria and timelines:• Collector roads, which carry traffic to the main arteries. They will receive maintenance within eight hours, after a measurable snow accumulation of two inches.• Industrial roads, which provide access to industrial and commercial property. They will receive maintenance within 16 hours.• Local roads, which carry the traffic to the collector roads, providing access to property bordering it and providing access to residents situated along its length. They will receive maintenance within 24 hours.• Multi-lot subdivision roads carry traffic from within the subdivision to local roads. They will receive maintenance within 72 hours.• Small airports - The airports will receive maintenance within 24 hours of the last measurable snow accumulation and will be restored to a fully operational condition.The plan also sets out the route priorities for emergency service facilities, school bus routes, steep hills, bridges, super-elevated curves, school areas, and airports.The winter operations emergency response plan outlines responses to three specific types of winter emergencies: short-term (shorter than 24 hours), intermediate (over 24 hour period) and long-term emergencies (an extended period).“Emergency response is now documented,” said MacLean. “It identifies the snow routes for all the quadrants, as well as the school bus routes. It identifies who's on call and who's on standby, and the emergency contact lists.”Roadway emergencies are defined as “any unforeseen or unplanned event that may degrade the quality or quantity of the county's roadways network. A roadway emergency can be caused by natural events, such as heavy snowfalls and ice storms, or can be caused by a person or persons, either unintentionally (such as by motor vehicle accident) or intentionally (such as sabotage).”Both plans will be presented to county road staff this week, he said.“It will be rolled out to all the operators so they can review it and hopefully provide us with some recommendations to make it even better,” he said.The operational services department provides snowplowing for approximately 2,884 kilometres of roadway in the county, using about 12,000 cubic metres of salt/sand mix annually to control icing conditions.As well, the department expects to move about 15,000 cubic metres of snow this winter from the airports and some of the roadway network to designated snow dump sites.Reeve Bruce Beattie says putting the plans into written form is a good step forward.“It's not a huge change but I think some of the smaller things that we are instituting are going to make the system run more efficiently and effectively,” said Beattie.“He (Mike MacLean, director of operations) feels that not only with our winter projects, but with our summer projects as well, we can do a better job with the same amount of dollars. Better management of our resources is going to be the key to it. Having this plan in front of us is going to be the first step.”
